Arkansas Senate Passes a Bill Banning Abortion at 18 Weeks; Now Proceeds to the House

Calvin Freiburger : Mar 14, 2019
LifeSiteNews.com

"If you look at the photographs of the children in the womb, it's unmistakable that those are babies. I think it's vital not only for the sake of unborn children, but also for the health of women because later in the pregnancy the woman gets an abortion, the more likely there are to be health risks. That's a proven fact." -Family Council President Jerry Cox

(Arkansas)— [LifeSiteNews.com] The Arkansas state Senate has voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation that would ban most abortions at 18 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks earlier than the current legal cutoff point in that state. (Image: Pixabay)

House Bill 1439 would forbid abortions from taking place more than 18 weeks after the first day of a woman's last menstrual period, except in cases of rape, incest, or physical medical emergency. It passed the state Senate with little debate on a 28-6 vote Monday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

"This bill actually has been well discussed," the bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Jason Rapert, explained. "It's pretty simple in that we already have existing law that prohibits abortion at 20 weeks. This moves that to 18 weeks."

Rapert is also responsible for the amendment that excluded babies conceived in rape or incest from the bill's protection, exceptions that have not been part of most of the heartbeat abortion bans several states have proposed or enacted (those also would stop abortions much earlier than 18 weeks). Besides moral objections, pro-lifers in past debates about similar bills have questioned the inclusion of exceptions on the grounds that even without them, by their nature late-term abortion bans still leave women with a window of several months to abort for any reason, including rape or incest... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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